Tag Archives: Pacific Remote Islands

A photograph of a tiny orange octopus was the most popular image
last year among all the photographs posted to Instagram by NOAA
Fisheries, the agency formally called the National Marine Fisheries
Service. More than 2,000 people “liked” the picture and many more
viewed it from among more than 150 top photographs posted last year
by NOAA Fisheries’ Communications shop
on its Instagram
page.

A baby octopus found on an
autonomous reef monitoring structure. (Click to enlarge.)Photo: James Morioka/NOAA

The octopus photo was taken during a NOAA expedition to assess
the health of coral reefs in the Pacific Remote Islands, which had
undergone a massive die-off in 2016 and 2017 caused by excessive
warm water. The tiny octopus was discovered on an “autonomous reef
monitoring structure” used to measure the recovery of ocean
ecosystems. For details about the voyage, see NOAA’s story
“Research Expedition to Assess Coral Reef Conditions and Recovery
from Mass Bleaching.”

Another popular NOAA photo from last year was a picture of a
large number of green sea turtles basking along the French Frigate
Shoals in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands.

Starting in 1973, NOAA biologists have traveled to these remote
islands to monitor nesting activity among the turtles. They work
day and night, counting and marking turtles with unique numbers for
identity. Citizens who spot numbered turtles are asked to report
them. For more details, check out the story
“Honu Count 2018: Help us find numbered sea turtles in
Hawaii.”

A video that tells a story of sea turtles also came out among
the most popular videos produced by NOAA last year. The story of
how their populations are changing is fascinating, and turtles
always get attention from readers and viewers, according to NOAA
officials.

“One of the really interesting things about sea turtles is their
sex is determined by the incubation temperature of the eggs, with
cooler temperatures producing more males and warmer temperatures
producing more females,” says Michael Jensen, a marine biologist
with Ocean Associates.

Jensen, working on a turtle study with NOAA’s Southwest
Fisheries Science Center, is the primary voice on the video, in
which he talks about how warmer waters in portions of Australia’s
Great Barrier Reef are producing about 99 percent female turtles.
These findings are based on new genetic studies that track where
the turtles are born.

“It’s important to remember that they’ve been around for a
hundred million years,” Jensen said. “They’ve outlasted the
dinosaurs. They’ve adapted to a changing climate through that whole
time. However, the climate is changing faster now than it has ever.
The question we are all asking now is: Will they be able to adapt,
and will they be able to adapt fast enough. We certainly hope
so.”

Humpback whale // Photo:
NOAA

One of NOAA’s top stories of last year, as always, was a focus
on whales. Communication folks put together some
interesting facts for Whale Week, including this one: “Male
humpback whales found in U.S. waters sing complex songs in winter
breeding areas … that can last up to 20 minutes and be heard miles
away.” OK, maybe most of us already knew that, but for each of the
10 whales mentioned, you will find links to a lot more details,
such as with humpbacks.

“Blue sharks are really blue. The blue shark displays a
brilliant blue color on the upper portion of its body and is
normally snowy white beneath. The mako and porbeagle sharks also
exhibit a blue coloration, but it is not nearly as brilliant as
that of a blue shark. In life, most sharks are brown, olive, or
grayish.”

Another popular “story,” which is actually listed as 16 separate
stories, involves issues of sustainable seafood, with mention of
National Seafood Month in October. Stories address sustainable
labeling, consumer preferences, cuts of fish, fishermen
perspectives, species recovery, aquaculture, economics, climate
change and descriptions of a variety of individual fish
species.

The list of NOAA Fisheries’ top stories, photos and videos can
be found on the agency’s
news website.